Page 4 of Nanny for the SEAL

It’s better that she understands that her mother is gone—and not coming back.

Even if I might wish for that with everything I have.

“I didn’t like Laura. She smelled funny.” Daisy grimaces, and I can’t help but laugh. “Can the next nanny smell better? No more skunk smell?”

I cock my head, trying to understand what Daisy means. When I realize that Laura was also smoking pot, among her other infractions, I clench my jaw, closing my eyes so that I don’t lose my temper all over again.

“Yes, honey. No more skunks.”

“Good.” Daisy perks up. “Are there snacks?”

I chuckle and stand up from the couch, heading toward the kitchen. “Yes, baby. There are snacks.”

But as I walk into the tiled expanse, all I can see are bright headlights rocketing straight toward my car and Maeve screaming from the front seat.

I try to force myself to breathe around the images of blood soaking the pavement and the sound of crunching metal that haunts my thoughts.

I can’t panic. I can’t fall apart. Never again. Not after that night. Not after it cost me my wife.

TWO

Ivy

Red Lodge, Montana. The farthest place I could think of from New York City that still has fall colors. I’ll admit to doing minimal digging on the internet before settling on the spot.

Still, I remembered it vaguely from stories of the more well-off students during college. It’s apparently quite the destination when you’re into skiing and mountain-bound activities.

I’m not here for any of that, though. Nope, I need the peace and quiet a small town can offer.

And a few hundred miles between me and the ol’ Big Apple.

Autumn yellow leaves rustle as a cool breeze cuts through the yard. This house is definitely a fixer-upper, and I’ll have my hands full doing the actual fixing since I’m not about to hire anybody.

Funds are decidedly lacking at the moment, and I’m drinking the last of the coffee.

“Ugh, I need to find a job.”

Grumbling to myself isn’t going to help, of course. But everyone needs to take a moment to complain every now and then.

And besides all that, it is beautiful here. The trees are tall and abundant with the edges of mountains cutting across the sky in the distance.

Everything feels slower here, too. There’s no hustle and bustle of too many cars for the street to handle with crowds of pedestrians.

There’s no subway, with its hour-long commute to go only a few miles. There are no crowds of people yelling across alleys at each other at all hours of the night.

A crow caws from a nearly barren tree up at the top of my driveway, and I watch as it takes off, knocking down more leaves, and flies away from the highway.

It passes between my yard and my neighbor’s, and it’s right then that I see him walking down off his porch.

The tall, muscular man heads toward a small mailbox at the end of his drive, pulling out a small handful of letters.

When he turns around to walk back, I’m just able to catch myself before he notices my jaw dropping open like some idiot. He’s just soripped.

You don’t see bodies like that outside of superhero movies, for fuck’s sake.

I shake myself. I did also see him fight with a young blonde woman the other day, and that shit did not look good. He’s probably as big of a player as those A-lister heartthrobs are.

As I snort lightly at my own joke, the guy looks up toward his door. But he notices me sitting here on the porch, and my entire body locks up.

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